West Wing Writers Workshop

In this course, you will learn to enhance and augment your creative writing ability. This poetry class is one that will assist in your creative writing process and upon completion you will gain confidence in writing some of the best poetry you have written. Materials Needed to Fully Participate: Pencil/Pen Notebook An open mind About the...

Movies are the modern mythology—the stories we all watch for excitement, inspiration, and entertainment. So many genres and types: drama, comedy, action/adventure, science fiction, fantasy, thriller, horror, crime, noir, epic, western, war, romantic comedy, musical. Larger than life blockbusters or down-to-earth depictions of reality. Tales told...

Every life holds many tales. Whether your life is wildly unconventional or relatively normal, there’s bound to be something fascinating about it. That’s why the contemporary memoir—everyday people telling their stories—has become such a popular phenomenon. A memoir covers an aspect of a life, whether it’s a short piece about, say, a bicycle...

The quiet magic of Goodnight Moon grows into the zaniness of Dr. Seuss and widens into the dazzlement of Harry Potter then matures into the straight talk of Judy Blume and the gritty reality of The Outsiders. Such is the amazing journey children take through books. These stories are a treasured part of childhood and they linger for a lifetime. To...

The best TV shows are addictive, beckoning us to bring the characters into our homes or onto our devices, episode after episode. The people might be cops, thugs, monsters, geeks, doctors, lawyers, fixers, or just ordinary people with everyday problems. The format might be network, streaming, or a web series. As long as it hooks us. Each TV show...

Fiction is a wonderful conjuring act. With only words and the reader’s imagination, a work of fiction can sail across the world in pursuit of a whale, or time-travel to another dimension, or zero in on a few minutes in line at the local bank, enveloping the reader in a made-up story that feels real.  To pull off this feat requires a balance...

Develop proficiency in essential grammar topics during this seven-hour course. You'll review punctuation rules, word choice, and writing techniques to improve your business writing skills. While our other courses help you with ideas and structure, this grammar course will help you with the technical aspects and details. To present your message effectively,...

This course gives you a firm grounding in the basics of memoir craft and gets you writing a short memoir (or two) or a book.  Course components: Lectures Writing exercises Workshopping of student projects (each student presenting work two times) Memoir I is for beginners or anyone who wants to brush up on the fundamentals. Each week a new...

In business, your writing counts. It’s a projection of yourself (and your company) just as much as what you wear or how you conduct yourself in a meeting. Good writing skills will enhance your image, increase your confidence, boost your productivity, and help you achieve your objectives on a daily basis. Here you will learn the basic principles...

In Effective Business Writing, you'll learn how to write professional emails and other standard business documents that get results. First, you'll learn key strategies to write effectively. Then, you'll develop a variety of business documents throughout the course, including emails, proposals, and letters. The course begins with an introduction...

Are you eager to test the waters of creative writing but not sure where to start, or how? Have you written previously but been away for a while and hope to dip back in? Here you will be guided surely and safely into the writing life. There’s no pressure to work on a specific project or even settle on which type of creative writing you prefer. The...

Are you eager to test the waters of creative writing but not sure where to start, or how? Have you written previously but been away for a while and hope to dip back in? Here you will be guided surely and safely into the writing life. There’s no pressure to work on a specific project or even settle on which type of creative writing you prefer. The...

Is it your dream to create the next Serial, This American Life, or Startup? If so, this is the class for you! In this five-week Online Podcasting Class, Podcasting expert John Fecile (99% Invisible, Snap Judgment) will teach you the fundamentals of this engaging new storytelling form. Through informative craft lectures, in-class writing exercises,...

Note: This is primarily a lecture class. There will be no feedback on student work. Do you want to write movies, but don’t know where to start? Not to worry. Veteran Screenwriter Chris Reed will provide the foundation you need to begin your journey into the world of writing for the silver screen. He’s written for all the big boys, Disney, Fox,...

In the peaceful atmosphere of the Saturday workshop, and with the help of meditations that quiet the critical mind, writing becomes possible, cathartic, transformational. You can write memoir or fiction. Each workshop is focused around an inspirational theme or myth. You’ll write three times for about one hour each time, and receive constructive,...

Award Winning Screenwriter Jacob Krueger Will Forever Change The Way You View Screenwriting. Rather than imposing formulaic models from the outside, we teach you how to organically “grow” your script, from initial idea, to character, to scene, to act, to the movie you’ve always dreamed of writing. Jump Start Your Writing. Whether you’re...

This is the only class of its kind—run like a real writer’s room on a 30 minute TV comedy series, taught by a professional showrunner with over 25 years of industry experience—and featuring the work of a community of talented student writers. Working with your classmates, and under the showrunning mentorship of Jerry Perzigian, you’ll develop...

Everyone and their cousins have a blog. But how many are well written? Truly interesting or entertaining or useful? Maintained on a regular basis? Enjoyed by a wide circle of people? Precious few. The key is to write posts so good even total strangers will be drawn to your blog. Here you will learn the specialized craft of writing blog content. Writing...

What do you think about X or Y or Z? And how have your life experiences informed your views on these topics? That’s the essence of a personal essay: viewpoints filtered through the lens of your personal experience. Any topic goes, from the ridiculous to the sublime. Unlike the stiff essays you may have written in school, these should feel personal,...

Every writer needs a good editor to push the work to its best possible state. But your work won’t reach a professional editor unless it’s already in excellent shape. A dilemma, to be sure. That’s why you need to be a skilled editor of your own work. Perhaps your great ideas and stories are clouded by such things as clunky language, pallid verbs,...